Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell

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Synopsis (from Amazon)

Set in Georgia at the time of the Civil War, this is the story of headstrong Scarlett O’Hara, her three marriages and her determination to keep her father’s property of Tara, despite the vicissitudes of war and passion. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

Review

This another book that is difficult to review without spoilers, so there will be a few blanked out bits, but hopefully not so many that it’s impossible to get a spoiler free review! Scarlet I found very difficult to like, she’s so selfish, and narrow minded and she thinks so much of herself- although the last one does give some laughs (but maybe only because I don’t like her). There were times that I began maybe to like her, or at least respect her somewhat, because she was strong, even if not for the right reasons. [highlight for spoiler]But she really spoilt it when she lied to Frank about Suellen so she could have him instead. And just because he had some money. I just wanted to hit her then. How could she not think of her sister, she was just so afraid of being poor, but was there really no other way? Despite not liking her I did want it to come good for her in the end [highlight for spoiler]I suppose part of it was that all the way through part of what annoyed me is that she was so twisted up in Ashley that she didn’t realise that she didn’t actually love him, but did love Rhett, and in a way when she realised it made me like her more- despite everything,and I guess I kind of wanted her insight to be rewarded when she had been so dilussioned about herself, it was kind of a turning point for her.

I did like Rhett though, he might not have seemed the nicest guy but at least he was honest about it, and I always felt that behind it all he was basically a good guy.

I was expecting the book to be more of a romance, but really I found it was more about the Civil War- and the time after. I liked that about it as I knew next to nothing about the civil war before, and history does interest me.

Something about this book that made me a little, uneasy shall we say, was that it actually made me understand where the Ku Klux Clan could be coming from, a kind of vigilantte justice. It didn’t actually go as far as to make me agree though, just to see ther side of things.

4.5/5

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